A large-scale collection of documents from the archive of Gershon Rivlin, 1940-s until the 1990-s (most of the documents are from the 60-s-70-s).
Gershon Rivlin (1914-1994), historian, author, editor and lecturer was born in Dvinsk. Rivlin immigrated to Israel with his parents when he was seven years old. His family settled in Ramat Gan and managed an agricultural farm. His father, Zalman Rivlin, was an educator and member of Ramat Gan's first council. In the times before the establishment of the State of Israel, Rivlin joined the Haganah, was active in publishing underground newspapers and operating an underground radio station, and was considered an expert on the underground movements in the time of the British Mandate. In 1940, he became the first editor of the IDF newspaper Ma'archot. Rivlin served in the Haganah and in the IDF for over 30 years and reached the rank of Colonel. After his retirement in 1972, he became a senior editor of the Am Oved publishing company. Later, he was a senior lecturer of the History of Eretz Yisrael in Ben Gurion University, a researcher in the Institute for Study of the Underground movements in Bar Ilan University, a member of the board of directors of the Eretz Yisrael Museum etc. Rivlin wrote and edited dozens of books, including David Ben Gurion's diary and a book on the history of the Haganah.
This collection is composed of thousands of documents including: *Many letters to and from Rivlin with letters signed by Shimon Peres, Yitzchak Rabin, Rechavam Ze'evi, and others. *Official letters and documents from the time his father served as member of the Ramat Gan council. *Hundreds of drafts of lectures and articles and research material that Rivlin compiled for writing; most deal with the history of Eretz Yisrael, particularly the underground movements. *Poems, lists and articles handwritten and typewritten. *Newspaper clippings and interviews with Rivlin *Leaflets of The Organization of Haganah Members in Israel. Various pamphlets and books that Rivlin took part in publishing. *Photographs from the film Cast a Giant Shadow, based on the biography of Colonel David Marcus (Mickey Stone), with John Wayne, Kirk Douglas, Frank Sinatra, Chaim Topol and others. Rivlin served as historian- consultant for the film. *Additional items. Varied size and condition.